|
We often equate moral health as following a set of rules from society or a particular religion. Yet moral health is really about re-discovering and accepting the self of our true nature. The common good in all humankind includes loving kindness, trustworthiness, bravery, and integrity. Yet we often fall short of these attributes. Our circumstantial behavior, the result of external influences and life experiences, is often a reaction from our emotional and mental disposition. When we achieve moral health we recover our innate quality of being virtuous.
We can improve our moral health by cultivating 5 basic virtues:
- Loving kindness
- Orderliness or civility
- Appropriateness
- Wisdom
- Faithfulness
Loving Kindness: Loving kindness is the core of a healthy personality and the heart of universal nature, which sustains all life. It includes being protective, nurturing and loving. Its element is wood and its moral correspondence is benevolence.
Orderliness or Civility: Orderliness brings simplicity and unity to the spirit and manifests at the emotional, physical, financial and social levels of life. At a personal level, it is the well-organized life. Its element is fire and its moral correspondence is humility.
Appropriateness: Being appropriate can be described as being just right or suitable. This can be very challenging as there are no absolute rules, and an action suitable in one situation may not be suitable in another. Its element is metal and its moral correspondence is integrity.
Wisdom: The wisdom of a sage can not be obtained by reading, learning or thinking about the subject. Those processes may give us a high intellectual vision, but do not make us act wisely. There are three levels of wisdom. The first comes from our own deep life experience. The second is the unspeakable, silent wisdom deep inside and is associated with the balanced mind that always responds appropriately. The third, only attainable through spiritual cultivation, is indescribable and comes from the pure spirit. The element of wisdom is water and its moral correspondence is discernment.
Faithfulness: Pure faith comes from personal growth and spiritual maturity. Extreme faithfulness can become emotional attachment and cause obstructions in life. Having faith in a positive life brings the joy of living and a heart full of pure faith brings a beautiful response from the universe. The element of faith is earth and its moral correspondence is being trustworthy.
Moral issues have concerned most societies and been at the forefront of all major religious teachings throughout history in an attempt to improve the general morality of society. Yet misrepresentations of these matters continue to result in widespread bloodshed. We are taught to pursue morality as an external goal and do not understood that virtue is an innate quality of humanity.
The Integral Way teaches that each virtue has its positive and negative aspects. Extreme loving kindness can sometimes beget hatefulness, extreme orderliness can sometimes beget disorder, and extreme faithfulness can sometimes beget disloyalty and so on. Careful examination of our life can show the co-existence of extremities in our behavior, just as the tai chi symbol shows that extreme yang contains yin and extreme yin contains yang. They cannot be separated in worldly life. The Integral Way encourages us to cultivate balance among all the five virtues.
We often identify moral issues as being good or bad, right or wrong, grace or sin. This dualistic approach can hinder our growth and spiritual maturity. Moralizing turns people away and judgment often results in defensiveness rather than reflection. The Integral Way teaches that the path to moral health lies in being truthful, natural and appropriate in every situation. The deepest spiritual maturity is beyond a dualistic mentality. True moral health is to learn from and accept each life situation as part of our growth.
Moral health is central in any spiritual cultivation. Years of meditation or other spiritual practices can be fruitless unless all five basic virtues are restored. We do not have to struggle or search widely for spiritual achievement. Everything we need is within our original healthy nature. Be guided by the conscience, and remember that we each have our own path to self-discovery. Continuous observation of our own behavior and self- acceptance can eventually resolve the obstructions to being naturally virtuous.
Further reading:
- Enrich your Life with Virtue, by Hua-Ching Ni
- The Path of Constructive Life, by Hua-Ching Ni and Maoshing Ni
- The New Universal Morality, by Hua-Ching Ni and Maoshing Ni
|
